ABSTRACT
Xinjiang, or the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Xinjiang weiwu’er
zizhiqu, to give it its full Chinese official name, lies on the northwestern frontier
of China on its border with the former Soviet Union. It stretches some 3,220
miles (2,000 kilometres) from east to west and 2,660 miles (1,650 kilometres)
from north to south, has an area of over 1,600,000 square kilometres (almost
three times the size of France) and is by far the largest administrative unit within
the People’s Republic of China. It lies so far west of, Beijing that it is effectively
two hours behind the Chinese capital: Xinjiang operates on Beijing time, in
particular for long distance air and rail transport and communications with
Beijing and government offices, and also on local time for informal use. Local
people almost always indicate which time they are using when making business
and personal arrangements and Uyghurs use local time whenever possible as part
of an assertion of the physical and cultural distance between Xinjiang and the
rest of China.
